1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to computer networks. More specifically, this invention relates to accessing network resources.
2. Background Art
The development of the EDVAC computer system of 1948 is often cited as the beginning of the computer era. Since that time, computer systems have evolved into extremely sophisticated devices, and computer systems may be found in many different settings. The widespread proliferation of computers prompted the development of computer networks that allow computers to communicate with each other. With the introduction of the personal computer (PC), computing became accessible to large numbers of people. Networks for personal computers were developed that allow individual users to communicate with each other.
Computer systems typically include operating system software that controls the basic function of the computer, and one or more software applications that run under the control of the operating system to perform desired tasks. For example, a typical IBM Personal Computer may run the OS/2 operating system, and under the control of the OS/2 operating system, a user may execute an application program, such as a word processor. As the capabilities of computer systems have increased, the software applications designed for high performance computer systems have become extremely powerful.
Other changes in technology have also profoundly affected how we use computers. For example, the widespread proliferation of computers prompted the development of computer networks that allow computers to communicate with each other. With the introduction of the personal computer (PC), computing became accessible to large numbers of people. Networks for personal computers were developed to allow individual users to communicate with each other. In this manner, a large number of people within a company could communicate with other computer users in a convenient and efficient manner.
One significant computer network that has recently become very popular is the Internet. The Internet grew out of the modem proliferation of computers and networks, and has evolved into a sophisticated worldwide network of computer systems linked together by web pages that collectively make up the xe2x80x9cWorld-Wide Webxe2x80x9d, or WWW. A user at an individual PC (i.e., workstation) that wishes to access the WWW typically does so using a software application known as a web browser. A web browser makes a connection via the WWW to other computers known as web servers, and receives information from a web server that is displayed on the user""s workstation. Information displayed for the user is typically organized into pages that are constructed using a specialized language called Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). The user can navigate to any page by inputting the address or Uniform Resource Locator (URL) into the web browser. URLs are simply formatted text strings which identify the location of a WWW resource.
Several web browsers have been developed which allow users to store xe2x80x9cplace holdersxe2x80x9d to represent the URLs of commonly visited sites. Similar to links, these place holders automatically navigate the user back to frequently visited sites with a simple point and click of the mouse. In the commonly used Netscape Navigator web browser, these place holders are referred to as xe2x80x9cbookmarksxe2x80x9d and are displayed on a Bookmarks Menu located on the main screen of the web browser. Similarly, Microsoft Internet Explorer also allows the user to define place holders which are referred to as xe2x80x9cfavorites.xe2x80x9d Since it would be impractical and impossible to list the exact term used by each web browser to designate these place holders, this specification uses the term xe2x80x9cbookmarkxe2x80x9d to broadly signify all present and future terms used to describe place holders which are capable of automatically retrieving URLs and directing a web browser to the desired site.
Another advantage of using bookmarks is the ability to customize a web browser for an individual user. Each web user can personalize his or her Bookmarks Menu by simply navigating their web browser to a commonly visited WWW site, clicking on the Bookmarks Menu and then clicking on the xe2x80x9cAdd a Bookmarkxe2x80x9d tool, or some similar tool. This causes the web browser to automatically add a bookmark for that site to the Bookmarks Menu. The newly defined bookmark then appears on the Bookmarks Menu as either the name of the site or the URL address of the site. The user can easily navigate back to any bookmarked site by simply clicking on the appropriate bookmark listed in the Bookmarks Menu.
While fairly simple, personalizing the Bookmarks Menu is a time consuming process which may take weeks, months, or even years to complete. In fact, the personalization process is never ending because, over time, users add and remove sites from the Bookmarks Menu according to changing interests and circumstances. However, at any point in time, a simple point and click with the mouse navigates the user back to any previously bookmarked site. The Bookmarks Menu alleviates the burdensome process of having to remember and correctly type in commonly used URLs. This feature is very useful because URLs typically contain 30 or more characters, some of which are fairly difficult to remember (i.e. xcx9c,  , /, etc.).
In the case of a personal computer, bookmarks are typically stored in a file or directory on the hard disk of the computer on which they were created, referred to in this specification as the primary computer. Each time the web browser is invoked on the primary computer, the web browser application loads the bookmark information, from the bookmark file into memory to create the information, including the list of favorite sites, for the Bookmarks Menu in the web browser.
One other result of the rapid adoption of computers into society is the need for individual users to access multiple computers. Often a user will operate some other computer, such as a computer at work or school, which does not have the user""s personalized bookmark information stored in memory. This computer may be referred to as an alternate computer. The alternate computer is any computer other than the primary computer and may be a laptop, office computer, or friend""s computer. Since the customized bookmark information is not available on the alternate computer, the user must individually reenter the URLs of commonly visited sites when operating the alternate computer.
Although all web browsers allow users to type in URLs which correspond to commonly visited sites, the process of typing in the URL for each site quickly becomes a tedious exercise which involves many error prone steps (i.e., remembering the desired site, remembering the URL of the desired site, remembering the correct format of the URL, positioning the cursor in the location window of the web browser, typing in the URL correctly and hitting the enter key). Without access to their customized bookmark list, if a user wishes to access 10 different commonly visited sites, the user must repeat this time consuming and cumbersome process 10 times. Alternatively, the user can transfer the bookmark file to a floppy disk and manually copy the bookmark file to each computer which the user uses to access the WWW. However, some computers have security systems which prevent any extraneous or non-critical information from being stored on the computer. In this case, manual transfers of bookmark-related information are not possible.
As the number of WWW users and the number of useful sites rapidly expand, it will become increasingly important for a web user to be able to use bookmarks to access commonly visited sites from any computer instead of memorizing URLs and manually invoking each WWW page. Without improvements in the portability of bookmark information, the manual request for each individual commonly visited site will continue to be an impediment to the effective usage of resources on the WWW.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, an apparatus and method for automatically downloading bookmark information from a primary computer to an alternate computer is disclosed. The present invention allows a web user to efficiently use an alternate computer by transferring personalized bookmark information from the primary computer to the alternate computer. In most cases, the primary computer would be the home computer where personalized bookmark information has been created and stored to disk.
To utilize the present invention, the user requests the bookmark information from their primary computer via a web browser interface on the alternate computer. The user is then prompted for the base address of the primary computer. The alternate computer then contacts the primary computer specified by the base address. Once the primary computer is contacted, the primary computer receives the request for bookmark information and prompts the user for security information. If the security information is valid, the primary computer embeds the bookmark information into a web page and transfers the web page to the alternate computer. If necessary, the alternate computer will translate the bookmark information embedded within the web page from one web browser format to another.